Ever. Ever. EVER! The best part of a turkey dinner is the turkey dressing (or stuffing, same thing right?!), at least for me it is. When I first sat down for a holiday meal with my husband’s family 9 years ago, I could not get over how amazing my mother-in-law’s turkey dressing was. I’m a fan of the boxed stuff, but this truly is the best turkey dressing I’ve ever had! EVER!
This recipe works well for an 8 lb turkey and will feed 6-8 people. For our large family the recipe is doubled and one recipe goes in the bird (which is when it’s called stuffing), the other is baked in a casserole dish (technically called turkey dressing).
The Best Turkey Dressing
- 8 cups bread crumbs, toasted
- 1 onion, chopped
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup celery, diced
- ¾ cup apple, diced
- 1 cup mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 tsp chicken bouillon
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp sage
- ½ cup fresh parsley
Preheat oven to 250ºF. Cut up or tear enough bread (fresh or the stuff you have stashed in your freezer that you’ll never use anyway), to make 8 cups of bread cubes. Place bread cubes evenly on cookie sheet and bake in oven at 250º for 1 hour. Set aside.
Melt butter in sauce pan and sauté chopped onion. Add diced celery, apple and mushrooms to sauce pan to simmer. Add chicken bouillon, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and sage to sauce pan and add 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil.
Add bread cubes and add parsley. Stuff in turkey and cook the turkey as directed, basting stuffing as needed, or place in covered casserole dish and cook for 45 minutes. If cooking in casserole dish you can, and may need to, baste with turkey juices if it’s looking dry.

- 8 cups bread cubes, toasted
- 1 onion, chopped
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup celery, diced
- ¾ cup apple, diced
- 1 cup mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 tsp chicken bouillon
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp sage
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- Preheat oven to 250F.
- Cut up or tear enough fresh bread to make 8 cups of bread cubes. Place evenly on cookie sheet and bake in oven at 250 for 1 hour. Set aside.
- Melt butter in sauce pan and saute chopped onion.
- Add diced celery, apple and mushrooms to sauce pan to simmer.
- Add chicken bouillon, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and sage to sauce pan and add ¼ cup water and bring to a boil.
- Add bread cubes and add parsley.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. My MIL created this recipe from various other recipes years and years ago. It’s too good to change, we’re keeping it! My MIL notes that if you double the recipe and put one in the bird and cook one in the oven or slow cooker, combine the two when they are cooked. Sometimes the dressing in the bird gets very very moist, but when combined with the dryer oven dressing it’s perfect!


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[…] adding stuffing to the turkey, do this now by stuffing lightly into turkey instead of packing firmly because […]
[…] myself and it’s my favourite thing about Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mother-in-law’s homemade turkey dressing is AWESOME!. Give me all the dressing/stuffing! Any time I see a recipe that I can incorporate […]
Can I tell you that turkey dressing is my absolute favourite???
My recent post 39 Things I Have Learned
I could eat a whole meal of just dressing!